The purpose of personal care absorbent articles including sanitary napkins or feminine pads, diapers, incontinence garments, training pants, bandages and the like is to absorb and contain body exudates including blood, menses, urine and feces. Personal care absorbent articles typically include a body side liner adapted to be placed adjacent to the wearer's skin, a back side layer or baffle which is usually liquid impervious to retain the exuded body fluids and an absorbent core whose purpose it is to store the exuded body fluids. Whether or not a particular personal care absorbent article will work well is a function of the interaction between all the components of the particular article. Two of the most important parameters for such articles are fluid intake time and fluid rewet. To be effective, personal care absorbent articles must take in exuded body fluids as quickly as possible. Once the body fluids have been taken in, it is desirable that the fluids not flow back towards and rewet the body side surface of the personal care absorbent article. By increasing the rate at which a fluid is taken into an absorbent article and by reducing the amount of rewet of that fluid to the body side surface, the article will typically have a cleaner and drier surface and, thus, will be more aesthetically pleasing and functionally acceptable to the end-user.
Feminine hygiene products including feminine pads or sanitary napkins are at a particular disadvantage from the standpoint of providing fast penetration rates and low rewet characteristics due to the nature of the exudated body fluid. Menses, as compared to urine, is a very viscous material. As a result, any tendencies by the sanitary napkin to have poor intake rates and high rewet characteristics are exacerbated by the properties of the fluid itself.
Apertured films and fibrous nonwoven webs are two materials used to form the body side liner of personal care absorbent articles and sanitary napkins in particular. Both of these materials have been used alone or in combination as the body contacting surface or layer in such products. Apertured films, by themselves, unless highly engineered, are two-dimensional in nature and while providing a non-staining surface, do not typically function well at preventing rewet. Lofty fibrous nonwoven web covers allow rapid penetration of fluid and help provide separation from the fluid, but the same materials can retain some of the fluid within their structure adjacent the top surface thereby resulting in a wet feeling and an obvious stain problem. This wet feeling and staining is undesirable for many users. Another problem with fibrous nonwoven web cover materials is the balancing of abrasion resistance with softness. More lofty materials tend to provide a softer feel and better fluid intake rate but the same materials also suffer from poor abrasion resistance. Conversely, more densified and therefore more abrasion-resistant materials tend to hold up better during use but also provide less desirable fluid intake rates. Combinations of films and fibrous nonwoven webs have been attempted but, again, due to the extreme variance in materials and properties as well as their interactive characteristics, the resultant products have met with varying degrees of success. There is therefore a need for an improved material which can be utilized for, among other things, a body side liner or cover material for personal care absorbent products.